Your marketing and business resource to accelerate sales through credibility.

Crediblity Marketing Tactics

Monday, August 27, 2007

When
visitors land on a website, the first thing they do is mentally evaluate in an
instant whether they can trust the information on the site enough to continue. Like all information, this is a matter of
whether or not the source of the information can be trusted to overcome
perceptions of risk, uncertainty and even possible identity theft. Trust or no trust happens during the
visitor's initial impressions or "first glance" at a website when
visitor is still unfamiliar with the vendor.

In people
to people interaction, we evaluate the person doing the talking before we
accept the person's message. On a
website, we evaluate the company behind the information. The company is evaluated at "first
glance" during the first three seconds of a website encounter.

But on a
website, the initial period of trust is not based on personal experience with
the vendor. The visitor and vendor do
not have a personal relationship history. The visitor makes a trust evaluation on what information, verbal and
visual, is available. Otherwise, the
vendor is faceless.

What do
visitors look for during this critical period?

Research
indicates that perception is done at "first glance" and on the basis of
whether the company is considered credible or not. Further, visitors look for what is termed
"surface" cues for credibility. Stanford University web credibility researcher, Dr. B.J. Fogg, describes
"surface credibility" as simple inspection of surface traits
non-verbally communicated by visual design.

In people
to people communication this would be how a person looks, his or her dress, or
hairstyle. Whether the person is neat or sloppy. These are "surface credibility"
characteristics. We often hear the phrase, "you don't get
a second chance to make a first good impression."

Why is a
first impression of people important? We
trust or don't trust the credibility of people upon first meeting. This leads to accepting, or not accepting,
what they have to say. The same is true
at the moment of "first glance" at a website, except we look at the
how credible the company logo and home page looks through non-verbal design
elements. In an instant. This is critical for continued website
success. The objective is to turn
visitors into trusting customers who move on after "first glance"
within the website for the purpose of purchasing a product or service.

Website
studies on visitor use conclude that over seventy
per cent of visitors leave at "first glance" if they do not
consider a website credible.

On the
positive side, my PhD research concluded that four times as many visitors will
continue as conversion rate customers if a credibility-based logo is on the company
website at "first glance" compared to a non-credible logo.

My research
supports that of Dr. B.J. Fogg and his Stanford (as
in University) Web Credibility Research, (http://credibility.stanford.edu/guidelines/index.html). Savvy website owners have two easy
opportunities to look credible and boost visitor website trust at "first
glance" to increase conversion rates:

1. Show that there is a real organization
behind the website, as an honest trustworthy company. This is done most effectivelywith a credibility-based logo design sm representing the company. The credible company logo is usually in
the upper left hand corner of the website. Perception theory in communication persuasion suggests that people
immediately want to know the source of the message which follows. Just like when we often look first for the
name of the person on an envelop or post card.

Similarly,
visitors to a website look at the company logo, or search for the company name
if there is no logo, at "first glance."

Then,
simultaneously,

2. Show
that there is a credible organization behind the website with an appropriately
designed home page. A company website
home page must be designed with the same appropriate credibility traits as in
the company logo. This will also give
consistency in credibility traits important to the company behind the website.

Logos and
home pages are perceived almost simultaneously. People perceive the "whole" before
they perceive the parts. Although the
eye will go immediately to the company logo or name (as a part) after
perceiving the "whole" or overall visual character of the home
page. Thus, the company
credibility-based logo design and the home page design must have a consistency
in credibility design "look." For example, the logo cannot have a
contemporary design and the home page a dated design.

The bottom
line is that the whole visitor perception, logo and home page, must communicate
credibility to assure the visitor continues at this initial web experience ---
at "first glance." These first
impressions are key to trust building and continued visitor conversions to
being a customer.

About Powerlogos Design
and Dr. Bill Haig

Powerlogos Design is the only creative and
research based logo and home page design firm using proven principles in source
credibility in communication persuasion to optimize online marketing. We call this Website Optimization at First
Glancesm. The process we use is termed credibility-based logo designsm and credibility-based website designsm.

Started as an online firm in 2001, Dr. Bill
Haig maintains the philosophy that logo and home page design apply proven
communication persuasion principles enabling clients to have the assurance that
their company logo and home page will be successful at "first
glance." A unique and inexpensive
logo and home page test methodology can be used for further, data based,
assurance.

Powerlogos Design analyizes and plans client
credibility traits before design commences. A questionnaire is provided and a Logo Planning Report is prepared which
includes a verbal description of the design objectives for the new
credibility-based logo and subsequent home page. The company uses top international designers
to interpret the objectives and create the preliminary and final designs. The result is a new logo and home page which
works, done efficiently based on a mutually agreed upon plan, then created by
top designers --- all under the supervision of Dr. Bill Haig.

Dr.Haig is a specialist in source credibility
in communication persuasion principles applied to logo design, website
credibility and online testing. He has
over forty years experience in logo design and recently obtained his PhD
applying his logo knowledge to website credibility and online testing. He developed a unique online logo and home
page testing methodology during three years of university supervised research.

When visitors land on a website, the first thing they do is
mentally evaluate in an instant whether they can trust the information on the
site enough to continue. Like all
information, this is a matter of whether or not the source of the information can
be trusted to overcome perceptions of risk and uncertainty. Trust or no trust happens during the
visitor's initial impressions or "first glance" at a website when
visitor is still unfamiliar with the vendor.

1. Show that there is a real organization behind
the website, as an honest trustworthy company. This is done most effectively with a credibility-based logo designsm representing
the company. The credible company logo is usually in the
upper left hand corner of the website. Perception theory in communication persuasion suggests that people
immediately want to know the source of the message which follows. Just like when we often look first for the
name of the person on an envelop or post card.

Similarly, visitors to a website look at the company logo,
or search for the company name if there is no logo, at "first
glance."

Then, simultaneously,

2. Show that
there is a credible organization behind the website with an appropriately
designed home page. A company website
home page must be designed with the same appropriate credibility traits as in
the company logo. This will also give
consistency in credibility traits important to the company behind the
website.

Logos and home pages are perceived almost
simultaneously. Thus, the company
credibility-based logo design and the home page design must have a consistency
in credibility design "look." For example, the logo cannot have a contemporary
design and the home page a dated design.

The bottom line is that the whole visitor perception, logo
and home page, must communicate credibility to assure the visitor continues at
this initial web experience --- at "first glance." These first impressions are key to trust
building and continued visitor conversions toward being a customer.

Powerlogos Design and Dr. Bill Haig:

Powerlogos Design is the only creative and research based
logo and home page design firm using proven principles in source credibility in
communication persuasion to optimize online visitor to customer conversion
rates. We call this Website Optimization
at First Glance. The process we use is termed credibility-based logo design
and credibility-based website design.

Started as an online firm in 2001, Dr. Bill Haig maintains
the philosophy that logo and home page design apply proven source credibility
principles in communication persuasion. The result is that clients have the assurance that their company logo
and home page will be successful at "first glance" giving trust to
the website company.

Dr. Haig has over forty years experience in logo design and
recently obtained his PhD applying his logo knowledge to website credibility
and online testing. He developed a
unique online logo and home page testing methodology during three years of
university supervised research.

How logo and home page credibility works in graphic design
is further explained in several articles on his website, www.powerlogos.com and
Dr. Haig's book on credibility-based logo designsm, The Power of Logos: How to
Create Effective Company Logos, NY: Wiley, 1997. Dr. Haig can be reached at

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

If you are an entrepreneur or even if you are a larger
company, having a good qualified opt-in list is increasingly becoming a
foundational marketing program. For those focused more on online sales it is
your lifeblood. There are a lot of people out there discussing how to build a
list, here are a few things I have learned using some of the obvious and also incorporating
more strategies using my credibility branding model.

Blogging:

Blogging is a great way to establish your brand by using
content to establish expertise and personality. I call it a networking and
branding building platform. Your web site is a brochure, your blog is you own
personal magazine that can illustrate your point and show what you know. The networking part is leveraging the power of
your voice and the audience you are building to improve your relationship with influencers
who by association can improve your brand. Here are a few hints to do that:

Re-post articles of those you want endorsements from or influencers you would like to form relationships with and tell them you reposted one of their works

Do a review of these same people content and blogs and ;et them know you did so

Ask readers to join your email list / blogger list

Blogging is a great way to drive a new audience to your
newsletter list, if they like your blog they want more.

Squeeze pages and
Bonus Gifts:

Squeeze pages are designed to build your list; you give away
free stuff on the squeeze page in exchange for an email address. I recently
created one for my credibility branding audit (you can check out here).
You can use is as a broader strategy; start with a squeeze page to build a
qualified list for a specific product. Then offer a phased approach of phased
products to that audience.

Try out social
networking sites

There are a number of social networking site that will drive
traffic and if done right can drive the right traffic to create new
subscribers, here are a couple:

List Bandit - List building networks; one I recently cam across is List Bandit. It is a group of like mined individuals building lists on top of each other, it is worth signing up and trying it. It is a little confusing to start but you get a series of emails that start to walk you through how it works. Also a
hint… at the beginning they offer you a special deal that only comes up at the time of signing up they are right and it is a good deal if you can afford it.

Stumbleupon
is a downloadable toolbar that embeds into your browser and gives you the
chance to surf through thousands of excellent pages that have been stumbled upon by other web-users. You can drive traffic by telling the right audience about something that is relevant to them (maybe your blog).

Del.icio.us is a place to store your bookmarks in one place, bookmark things for yourself and friends and check out what other people are bookmarking. The key is to drive people to your bookmarks
and also get onto other peoples lists. This is another one of those credibility branding things, if you can get on an influencers list it drives traffic and builds your credibility by association.

Twitter a mini blog based on only 40 characters per post based on the premise “what are you doing” build a following here too.

Squidoo build a page about your passions create a specific lens of your product here is mine. You
can also start you own groups, I started one that is starting to slowly build.

MyBlogLog, one of my favorites this is a blogging networking community. Bloggers are
influencers and are ahead of the curve, MyBlogLog allows you to meet and interact with fellow bloggers. A great site where you meat great professional friends that are doing the same thing as you. I have gotten many newsletter subscribers from here and fans and I have become fans of
some pretty awesome people.

There are a lot more… please leave comments with ones you have found to work and how they work.

Pop Ups

The days of pop ups are waning, however apparently they
still work. The key is to have it pop up at the end of their stay as they are clicking
away and offer a gift to incent them giving their email.

Bottom line with all of this is to go after the audiences
that make sense for your product don’t get an email address just to get an
email address. Use these practices to drive a pre-qualified audience to you
products. Use them to further establish your credibility and to get those
points of credibility across in your messaging. Be careful not to get
distracted by these tactics by doing too much of this and not running your business.

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

As we all know, making sales on your Web site involves a lot of factors. Ever consider your logo as part of the success (or not) of your Web site?

Our logo expert, Dr. Bill Haig, has done some interesting research on this and has determined that your logo must be credible on your website to be effective. For example, company logos designed with specific company credibility traits will increase the conversion rate 2x to 4x compared to logos which are not credibility based. That could mean increasing sales 2x to 4x. It is all a matter of trusting the company behind the website. This is the focus of his recent PhD dissertation.

Following up from yesterday's excellent post by Bill, he is offering a no cost logo evaluation for your company to the first 25 people who respond. This is a good opportunity to receive an expert opinion about your logo.

Bill provides a three page evaluation report, including background as to why Credibility Based Logo Design works. He gives examples of credible logos. His objective is to give small business an understanding how logos contribute to the bottom line when they are credible. The flip side, of course, is that a company logo can actually be a distraction when customers cannot trust a company when it does not look credible.

Here is what you do:

1. Send Bill a full description of your company business. Just ramble as if you are describing it to someone who knows nothing about it.

2. Include why your business is unique. What do you do that your competitors do not do.

3. Send your logo.

Bill’s email address for this special no cost logo evaluation is

bill@haigbranding.com

For more about Bill’s proven Credibility Based Logo Design strategy, please read the articles which appear here regularly. His website is www.powerlogos.com and he can be reached by phone at 808-922-4042 Hawaii Time after 9 am.

This story is about Google as an increasingly important
point of credibility.

The path to being included in the article is also part of
the social media world and my credibility branding model. I found John’s blog The Follis Report through the great
blogging social networking site MyBlogLog.
I read his article which I re-posted
on the Credibility Branding Blog in March, then let John know about
it. He contacted me and we had several
discussions about his G Cred theory. I offered a quote for an article he was
writing and he was eventually able to use it here.

See, this stuff works J

Here is the article
from Adweek; John offers an important marketing consideration…

In this hype-happy, what-to-believe world, it comes
down to a very basic, fundamental thing: credibility. How does one get it? How
does one convincingly communicate it? And is there a Good Housekeeping Seal of
the 21st century?

"Street cred" has been one recent barometric buzzword. Defined by the
American Heritage Dictionary as "acceptability or popularity, especially
among young people in urban areas," the legitimacy of street cred should
not be minimized. As discussed in Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point, the
urban environment of street cred has been the birthplace of more than a few
trends that have found their way into the mid-American mainstream. As true as
that is, however, in today's high-speed cyberspace, street cred is … well … so
2005. There's a new cred in town, and it's called "G cred."

If you haven't guessed, the "G" is for Google. And while the term G
cred may be new to you, it's been in the Urban Dictionary for over a year.

G cred (n.): Google credibility. What someone sees when they Google your name,
business, product, organization or whatever. It's an increasingly important
measure of legitimacy and how seriously someone will take you.

More than the cred of the day, G cred is the cred of the next decade. In her new book, The Credibility Factor,
market communications strategist Jennifer McLean offers support for that claim:
"While there are multiple forms of credibility found within a company or
product, Google is playing an increasingly important role in the perception
puzzle. The bottom line is: Credibility fosters trust, and Google is here to
stay as a measure of that credibility."

As Google and the Web continue to mature, online visibility will equate to
credibility on every level. It does now, through blogs and a myriad of social
media sites that have become a respected, easily accessible and exponentially
expanding source of cred. In short, word of mouth on steroids. What's important
to realize in this Web 2.0 world is that G cred doesn't just apply to every
business, product and organization. It also applies to every professional. And
that's not a new thought. Respected marketing gurus like Tom Peters and Seth
Godin have been preaching the value of building one's "personal
brand" for years. Godin's Purple Cow champions the value of standing out
and "being remarkable." Similarly, in The Brand You, Peters explains
how career survival is not about blending in but about standing out:

"Regardless of age, position or the business we happen to be in, we need
to understand the importance of branding. We are CEOs of our own companies: Me
Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for
the brand called You."

If that was true when Peters wrote it back in 1997, just imagine how true it is
today. And that means visibility online. If you do a Google search on yourself
and little comes up, or it's dated, well that's not good. If you happen to be
someone in the marketing communications business and that happens, you'd better
hope it's not your clients who are doing the searching.

As Google continues to rattle the cages of traditional media ("Google
Gooses Big Media," Time, March 16), traditional agency execs had better
start focusing more attention on the online model, regardless of their success
at immediately monetizing it. In less than a decade, Google has gone from $0 to
$3.1 billion in after-tax profits. With that, the new reality is that
"nontraditional advertising" ain't so nontraditional anymore.
Regardless of who wins this latest Clash of the Media Titans, I would venture
to say that no media company, or ad agency, should expect to win long term if
they don't fully understand and embrace the new rules of the game.

As much as this is sounding a lot like an ad for Google, it's not meant to be.
I have no business or personal ties to Google, no direct or indirect company
connections and, unfortunately, no Google stock. My point is simply that, as I
hear a growing number of CEOs and business owners refer to advertising as
"the A word," I've come to realize that it's no longer enough for
agency execs to merely know about the curve. We'd best be ahead of it.

Friday, May 18, 2007

Dario
D’Onofrio over at The Business Hackers
Blog wrote a great article back in April about the value of your website.
So why should you care? It is simply another point of credibility. Think of all
the ways that your product could be more credible then highlight them through
your marketing materials. It will different for select audiences. For example an
audience of online marketers is going to very interested in how you rank and
how valuable your site is. It has meaning to them in a way that instills trust.
So Check out ways to figure this out through Darip’s post…

Thursday, May 17, 2007

One of the most powerful strategies in a brand-building
effort is a thought leadership program. This program involves executing tactics
that position a person (spokesperson or sole entrepreneur) as an industry
expert. It paves the way for a company to tap the industry mood and deliver
high-level, thoughtful insights. Your product or company spokesperson is now
positioned as the influencer. What better way to attract influencers than to be
one? By being recognized as an expert, you raise the credibility bar yet again.

I have discussed previously how product features alone just aren’t cutting
it as the main asset of a marketing message. And as important as benefits (what
pain are you solving?) are, companies and entrepreneurs sometimes need an even
higher level of positioning.Being
positioned by the industry as an innovator allows you to now become the
commentator on industry trends and issues. Being an influencer brings the
ability to shape the market trends directly. The other obvious benefit is
recognition and instant credibility. As the thought leader (influencer), you
are now positioning your product and your company as leaders by proxy.

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Here is a great article out of the Wall street Journal
(subscription required, sorry) talking about the importance of influencer
relationships in advertising. In this instance it is large companies that are
showcasing small businesses as example s of business success using the large
companies’ products and/or services.

The key word in the story is credibility, and with
credibility comes the opportunity to raise the profile and play at a new level.
This applies to large companies as well, especially in the form of strategic
partnerships. The partnership can be used to pursue a new demographic, to
strengthen the perception or improve the product itself to enhance the joint
brands. Boasting each brand’s strengths improves overall credibility.

So for small to medium sized companies, where have you been
having a great experience with a large company you have hired? Offer yourself
as a case study, tell them about the return on investment you have experienced
and you might just be their next poster child in a multimillion dollar
campaign.

Talking about a small company increasing its profile, I
recently watched the local news and they offered a story about a race between local courier and the reporter
who had an in-car GPS device for
managing traffic and directions. There were three different races and three
broadcast segments, and the courier won every time. This courier who likely has
zero advertising (or PR) budget just received three 90-minute spots that
highlighted him and his courier company. I bet you his business saw some
remarkable lift.

Where can you leverage a unique story angle like this one
and pitch it to the assignment desk/producers of your regional news? Or where
is there a case study that you can offer to a large company you have bought
services from?

Big companies are increasingly realizing that using real people with real businesses
in their ad campaigns lends credibility to their efforts. It also provides a
cheap and effective way to target niche audiences--be it the African-American,
Latino or other communities, such as environmentalists or pet enthusiasts.

For their part, small businesses featured in these ads get the kind of
marketing and recognition that might take years to get on their own. And they
do so with very little effort -- and on someone else's tab.

For example, DogToys.com, a Web retailer and wholesaler of pet products based
in West Chester, Pa., was showcased last month with two other local
entrepreneurs in a regional promotion for Verizon's broadband technology.
Although the commercial didn't result in an immediate sales increase, founder
Jill Gizzio says the ad helped her business reach a higher level of
credibility. - Read
the whole story...

Monday, April 30, 2007

Great advice from
John Jantsch over at Duct
Tape Marketing. I have been talking ad nauseum about the importance of
research and keeping on top of the editorial and blogger landscape. The
following is not only great resource for you and but also to send the results
to your clients, or internal corporate constituents. The idea is letting
technology aggregate relevant industry content so you don’t have to.

Why do you need to
keep up? Get out of the myopic box of your own company and product. Explore the
opinions and news of the industry and your competitors. It will open your mind
to new ideas, unique messaging and what your customers are interested in. Become
a hero to your clients by delivering the breaking news in their industry.

Just
when you thought you were getting the hang of using RSS as a research tool,
someone, like me, comes along and tells you that it's not enough.

Now
it's become ultra easy to use RSS technology to create individual feeds of
information and supply them to your best clients. You know they want to figure
this RSS thing out but just can't seem to get around to it. So, do it for them.

Here's
what I would suggest. Go to www.mysyndicaat.com
and create personalized, search specific, RSS feeds, mash them together and
deliver customized information to your clients on a daily basis. The current
trendy name for this is a newsradar

Syndicaat
allows you to easily mash multiple feeds together creating one very focused and
personalized feed. (Yahoo Pipes does this as well, but my results with it have
been spotty)

So,
let's say you have a client that produces tents for active outdoor types. You
can search very specific terms and phrases in Google News, Yahoo News,
Bloglines, Technorati, Google Blogs, Outdoor Forums, and anything else that
produces an RSS feed and mash all the content about your client, their
competitors, the industry, specific keywords and phrases, you name in, into one
digestible, personalized newsfeed that changes daily. (Don't tell your client
how easy this is, just do it and bill them for it - they'll thank you.)

Talk
about a great way to get a competitive edge. It's like creating personalized
publications for each client or each marketing segment you serve. What if you
did this for your prospects as a way to show them what you could do? You can
make all this content public or create private password protected feeds. You
can also republish the RSS feed and data on any web page on your site using
simple javascript or even Feedburner's Buzz Boost and then put it in your
client's private page on your website. So now they come to your website for
their industry news everyday - you got to like the sound of that.

Friday, April 27, 2007

Chris Brown over at the Branding & Marketing Blog
hits the nail right on the head with her post below. Stop living in what I call
tactic land and develop a strong, sound strategy that the tactics can live in.
The strategy is the structure upon which all activity is filtered through. When
a company has no strategy, efficiencies decrease because there is no sounding
board for whether a tactic makes sense or not..

While Chris is specifically speaking to the need for web
sites, it addresses this issue nicely. Thanks Chris for the following insight:

Sometimes a business
professional will come to me and ask if we "do websites"... and if we
do create websites, "how much?"

My answer is "Yes" and "It depends."

To me it's much more important to make sure the marketing strategy and
marketing program aligns with the objectives of the sales department to support
the overall company's strategy, than it is to "do a website."
Otherwise, a new website is created, looks and works great, but the actual
impact to the profitability overtime doesn't improve. I don't recommend doing a
new website unless you it's part of your overall program. You want it to
positively impact your overall sales & marketing goals. Tactics without
strategy is wasting your marketing budget.

I've heard it called "Ready, fire, aim." You know what I mean.

To read the entire post click here and scroll down to
the April 24th post

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